


Dressing In The Dark

by Liadt



Category: Rising Damp
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, M/M, Rigsby is a dork, but Alan is the best, grappling with own sexuality, making a hash of it, not knowing who you are anymore, outdated attitudes and stereotypes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-20 15:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20678018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liadt/pseuds/Liadt
Summary: Now Rigsby and Alan are an item, Rigsby decides to come out to Ruth and Philip. Alan is mortified, not because he's ashamed of their relationship, although if going out with Rigsby means living with his new wardrobe he is ashamed. Deeply.Will Rigsby's cardi be restored to its rightful place on his shoulders?[Warning for a coming out story done 1970's sitcom style.]





	Dressing In The Dark

In Ruth’s room, Alan and Philip were attempting to unstick one of her dressing table drawers. Normally, Rigsby would have been up like a shot to fix it, but he’d been strangely disinterested of late and Ruth had had to call on the boys upstairs to her aid. Ruth was making some tea to keep their strength up (and because watching the two D.I.Y novices struggle with her furniture was dull) when Rigsby burst in.

“What do you think, duckies?” said Rigsby and made an elaborate hand gesture. He was wearing a blotchy pink necktie, a yellow, brown and orange satin shirt (featuring a pattern which looked like it was designed to suggest someone had been sick on it), with a white carnation in the buttonhole (because green carnations were hard to come by). The whole ensemble was topped off with a purple fedora and matching trousers. 

“It’s a fun outfit for a fancy dress party, but you should try dressing like someone recognisable, Humphrey Bogart for instance,” advised Ruth. 

“I’m not in fancy dress, my lovelies.”

“You could have fooled me,” said Alan, askance at Rigsby’s new look.

“That's gratitude for you, isn’t it? It’s all for your benefit, darling,” said Rigsby. “You’re the one who told me I could do with changing my wardrobe, sweetie.”

“I only said you should get some new shirts as the collars on your old ones had had it. I didn’t mean you should start dressing like you got dressed in the dark,” said Alan. 

“Men, I ask you, Miss Jones, can’t live with them...”

“Mr Rigsby, are you alright? These new clothes and saying ‘ducky and ‘sweetie’ isn’t you. Have you been over doing it lately?” Ruth feared Rigsby had tipped over the edge into a nervous breakdown.

“It is tiring trying to remember to say ‘sweetie’ and ‘ducky’ at the end of a sentence and waving my hands around, I think I’ll give up on those mannerisms,” said Rigsby, flopping on to the sofa and pinching the bridge of his nose. He then sat bolt upright as he spoke, “But stressed? Alright? I’ve never felt better. In fact, I’m glad, glad to be gay!”

“You are?” said Ruth, amazed. It did explain a lot. His manic attitude must have been due to the stress of hiding his sexuality. 

“I know it must be terribly disappointing for you, Miss Jones.”

“Oh no, I’ve always felt sympathetic for the plight of homosexuals. Love should be celebrated, not condemned, whatever form it takes.”

“Er, thank you.” This wasn’t the response he’d hoped from Miss Jones, even if he had Alan now. “Yet, I have no need for your sympathy: I’m out and proud!” Rigsby took his hat off and swept it out in an expansive gesture before putting it back on. 

“Oh, that’s marvelous. You look very happy, does this mean you have a boyfriend?” said Ruth.

Rigsby looked significantly in the direction of the dressing table and grinned.

Philip coughed.

Ruth’s eyes widened. She felt foolish: all the time she’d spent chasing Philip had been a waste of time.

“It’s me. I’m his boyfriend,” said Alan, guessing what Ruth was thinking. “Philip already knows. It’s OK, he’s not bothered,” he said to Rigsby. 

“You didn’t tell me you’d told him.” Rigsby was put out, his big reveal wasn’t going as expected. For starters, there was Philip standing there like he’d told him he liked two sugars in his tea. Huh, when he was his age he would have boxed his ears, chucked him out of the house and …. on balance, he guessed he could cope with Philip’s indifference. As for Miss Jones, her response was obviously to do with being a lady of quality and refinement. It would have been quite different if they’d been alone. She would have asked him if there was any room in his heart for at least one woman and he’d say sorry it could never be as he was blissfully happy with Alan. As long as the bathroom plumbing didn’t pack up. Alan seemed to be spending even more time in there these days and he feared a plunger and a cheap packet of soda crystals wouldn’t be enough to tackle a serious blockage caused by Alan's hair. And then Miss Jones would sigh and say what a great loss to womankind he was. Alan hadn’t acted like he hoped either, cringing away as he spoke. Why hadn’t he rushed up and thrown his arms around him? He was hurt, but he should have told Alan what he had planned, but then Alan hadn’t told him he’d told Philip, he thought sulkily. 

“Philip guessed something was up when you kept coming to our room and putting your arm around me,” said Alan. 

* * * *

It had happened the other day. Alan was cramming for an upcoming exam when Philip asked, “Alan, I can’t help but notice Rigsby’s been acting differently around you.”

“Really, I hadn’t noticed,” said Alan, feigning ignorance.

“He’s been quite chummy, slinging his arm around you and looking proud. I think he knows something about you I don’t, because, not only has his attitude changed, yours has too. You’ve been more, how shall I say, relaxed.” Philip then grinned and added, “You’ve lost something, haven’t you?”

“I have?” Alan wasn’t pretending to be confused now.

“Yes. You’ve popped your cherry which Rigsby found out about somehow and now he’s been welcoming you into the halls of manhood, with terrible stories of his youth. So, who was the lucky lady and how did it go?”

Alan looked panicked. “Er, um, er, er.” How could he tell him Rigsby knew because he was the one who popped it?

“It didn’t go wrong, did it? And you told Rigsby it didn’t so he couldn't mock you?” Philip was sympathetic.

Alan shifted uncomfortably. “Er, it only went wrong if you think it not being with a girl is wrong.”

“Oh,” said Philip as he processed this information. “I assumed...”

“I like both,” Alan interrupted him. He didn’t want Philip to think he’d been faking his interest in the posters of curvy ladies on the walls. “Are you alright with it? I know it’s easy to be all modern and sophisticated at a distance, but it’s a bit different when you’re sharing a room. You’re not going to move out are you?” said Alan, in a small voice. He was worried Philip wouldn’t want to be friends with him anymore.

“I’m alright with it if you are.”

Alan nearly slid off his chair in relief.

“While I would like to have my own room, I always have done and I feel safer in here with you than with Ruth jumping out at me everyone time I pass her door.”

“I don’t have any lustful designs on you,” Alan assured him. 

“So was it a one off or is he your boyfriend now?”

“He’s my boyfriend, I suppose.” It felt strange to say that out loud and as they had slept together more than once it had to count as a relationship, didn’t it? He’d even been given a tour of Rigsby’s own living quarters too.

“You’ll have to bring him round. I’d like to meet him,” said Philip, kindly.

“Er.” God, he’d have to tell him wouldn’t he? There was barely any privacy round here and if there was having your boyfriend living downstairs wouldn’t be easy to hide anyway. 

“Is he married?” Clearly there was some sort of problem with this relationship.

Alan burst out laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“Yes, he is, although no one has seen her for years.”

Philip looked puzzled that didn’t seem humorous to him.

Alan was surprised he hadn’t twigged; Philip was usually quick to catch on. He gave a sigh: “It’s our landlord.”

“Rigsby?” Then there was silence, this took a lot more processing for Philip than learning Alan was attracted to men. “Oh Alan, if I’d known you were that desperate I would’ve helped you to find someone, anyone, else.”

Alan folded his arms. He knew Rigsby wouldn’t be heading any eligible man lists, but Philip was insulting his choice and his lover. “I wasn’t desperate.” Well, he had been, but not so desperate as to do it with anyone. “Rigsby can be very nice _actually_, once you scratch the surface, and he’s a considerate lover …. so there!”

Philip was taken aback, both by Alan’s annoyance and on hearing more information than he wanted on what Rigsby was like in bed, which was any information at all. “I’m sorry to offend you. It was the shock.”

Alan nodded to accept the apology. 

“Has he reduced your rent?” Could love make Rigsby less mean?

Rigsby hadn’t and Alan hadn’t thought to ask, but Alan said, loftily, “No, I don’t want to be a kept man.”

Philip's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter.

“Can you keep it a secret for now, both from everyone else and Rigsby? I want to tell him first you know about us. I don’t think he’s got his head around us yet.”

Philip nodded, he understood. It would be difficult for someone as repressed as Rigsby.

Philip kept his promise and had acted the same as normal when Rigsby came upstairs, but Alan could tell by his eyes he was absolutely fascinated. They were transfixed on Rigsby trying to work it out. Later, he couldn’t help asking what the attraction was. Alan couldn’t explain it, but huffily said a spark was a spark. 

* * * *

Ruth’s eyes were still wide: it was an unlikely pairing. “I would never have guessed. I thought gay men were meant to be stylish.”

“That’s students for you,” sniffed Rigsby.

“She means you,” said Alan.

“Now, now, don’t bitch, Alan. If Rigsby wants to express his true nature in those clothes, as his boyfriend, you should be supportive,” said Philip.

Alan shot him daggers.

“I thought as I’m gay, I should dress gay,” said Rigsby.

“I don’t think _anyone_ dresses like that. What’s wrong with the cardigan?” said Alan, saying a sentence he didn’t think he’d ever say in a million years.

“I can’t say I like this shirt. My old ones are better. Proper quality lasts. I’ve had them years, you know.”

Everyone expressed their disbelief at this, while several miles away a lie detector broke to the mystery of its operators. 

“And this necktie itches. I’m sure I saw the cat sitting on it earlier, it’s probably full of fleas.”

Alan went to sit next to Rigsby and removed the offending, in many ways, necktie.

“Do you really want to wear these clothes?” Alan asked him, gently. If Rigsby genuinely did, he supposed he’d have to live with it. Until the start of November, anyway, when this year’s guy for bonfire night would be getting a new set of clothes. 

“No, but I thought … you see them on TV ... all flamboyant and if I’m one of them, I should...” Rigsby punctuated each comment with a jerk of his head until he trailed off and slumped back on the sofa, exhausted by his floundering attempts to get to grips with his sexuality. 

“That’s the telly: you have to be flamboyant to get on the box. Dress how you want. All you have to do is fancy men.” Alan gave Rigsby’s hand a squeeze and smiled at him.

“I can do that.” Rigsby shyly smiled back.

“I think we should celebrate Alan and Rigsby finding each other,” said Ruth. Her head swam with adorable feelings watching the two of them on the settee together.

“I agree. We should go out. How about Twelve Trees? It’s a very exclusive new restaurant which has just opened,” said Philip. 

A look of alarm passed over Rigsby’s face. To him exclusive equaled expensive. To fork out for one overpriced meal was bad enough, but he’d have to pay for Alan too, wouldn’t he?

“I’d rather go down the chippie,” said Alan. 

Rigsby gripped Alan’s hand in thanks. A partner who understood the value of thrift was a special one. “I agree with Alan.” Alan could afford his own chips. 

Ruth didn’t look pleased. She’d rather be in a nice, warm restaurant, instead of standing outside a chip shop, eating from a paper cone, in the cold.

“Me and Philip will go and get the chips,” said Alan, winning perfect partner points from Ruth as well. “And Rigsby can change back into his normal self.”

“Isn’t it wonderful to have found someone who loves you just the way you are?” said Ruth and she sighed as she wished for it herself. 

“Er, yes, it is, isn’t it?” said Rigsby and beamed. He hadn’t thought he’d find love at this time of life or find friends who would be equally happy for him to have found it.


End file.
